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CHICAGO (AP) — A day after Barack Obama sealed the Democratic nomination for president, a corruption scandal involving a fundraiser who helped bankroll his past campaigns resurfaced to slightly dampen the festivities.

Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, 52, was convicted Wednesday of fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting bribery in a plot to squeeze illegal payoffs out of firms hoping to do business with the state.

Republicans are already capitalizing on Rezko's ties to Obama, even though the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is accused of no wrongdoing and his name was barely mentioned at trial.

"Today's verdict and Obama's friendship with Rezko raises serious questions about whether he has the judgment to serve as president," Robert M. "Mike" Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement.

I doubt that it will do that much damage. The mainstream media has all but annointed Obama king of the USA. Not to mention that the Clintons survived Whitewater, McCain was one of the "Keating 5" and still sits in the Senate, and the general public doesn't always understand the reports about dirty financial connections.